NVC@30 Fireside Chat with David Rabie Spotlights Tovala’s Journey from NVC to a Profitable, 9-Figure Revenue Business

The Polsky Center continued its NVC@30 Fireside Chat series with David Rabie, MBA ’15, founder and CEO of Tovala and winner of the 2015 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71 New Venture Challenge (NVC). Moderated by Mark Tebbe, adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth and entrepreneur-in-residence at the Polsky Center, the conversation followed Tovala’s transformation from one student’s concept to a nationally recognized food-tech company redefining home cooking.

Opening the discussion, Steve Kaplan, Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and faculty director of the Polsky Center, reflected on Rabie’s early days in the NVC.

“He did so well in the first round, and completely bombed in the second,” Kaplan said with a laugh. “But we let him into the finals anyway — and he won. It’s awesome that he did, because Tovala is an amazing product, and I’ve personally been a customer for years.”

Life Before Booth

Before Booth, Rabie had a run of interesting careers. He worked at a crisis PR firm, taught English in China, managed a small frozen-yogurt chain, and worked for the founder of a large vegan restaurant chain.

“I always knew I wanted my MBA,” he said. “And I wanted to try living outside of California. Booth resonated with me immediately. I came here to start a company. My essays were about entrepreneurship, and I used every resource and grant Booth offered.”

Although he began Booth exploring a sports-tech startup, Rabie soon pivoted to his lifelong passion for food.

“About two months into Booth, I realized the sports app didn’t have legs,” he said. “Food was what I truly cared about, so I started running my idea through Booth classes.”

Those courses — including I-Corps and “every entrepreneurship course” he could take — helped shape what became Tovala.

During the NVC, Rabie and his team built a functional prototype oven. “It barely worked,” he said, “but it got the job done for proof of concept.”

When it came time to present, he wanted judges to experience Tovala firsthand.

“We literally cooked a meal during the presentation,” he said. “Someone wheeled in the oven and hit start. I had to finish the presentation just as the food was finished. It was risky, but it worked.”

The team won the 2015 NVC, earning not only prize money but critical validation.

David Rabie with Mark Tebbe and Steve Kaplan.

“The checks at that time were a little smaller,” he said jokingly. “It wasn’t necessarily enough to hire a team or build a real prototype, but it gave us credibility — and that helped us raise our first round.”

From Startup to Scale

After graduation, Rabie faced the challenges of turning a student project into a company.

“That summer was hard,” he said. “Your classmates get corporate jobs, and you’re trying to build a business with no money and no technical team.”

The breakthrough came when Bryan Wilcox, a PhD in mechanical engineering, joined as a co-founder.

“We bought countertop ovens off Amazon and modified them,” Rabie explained. “That gave us a working prototype for a fraction of the cost.”

With that prototype, Tovala was accepted into Y Combinator in late 2015, which allowed the team to raise a pre-seed round and launch a successful Kickstarter campaign the following year. The campaign sold roughly 1,000 ovens, attracted national press, and funded Tovala’s first production run. By mid-2017, the company shipped its first smart ovens and began delivering fresh, ready-to-cook meals nationwide.

Early feedback validated the model.

“Even with just a few hundred customers, our retention was significantly higher than competitors’,” Rabie said. “We knew we were onto something.”

But scaling wasn’t simple. The team spent two years refining pricing and messaging, eventually introducing flexible oven-and-meal bundles that doubled conversion rates and pushed their revenue run rate from $5 million in August of 2019 to $15 million by the end of 2019.

The pandemic brought explosive growth, but as much of the world experienced, new challenges as well.

“In 2020, we tripled the business but had no infrastructure to support it,” Rabie said. “We were hiring every week while managing a new facility and raising capital. It was chaos.”

In 2021, when growth started to slow, Tovala adjusted pricing again, reigniting momentum and pushing annual revenue toward $100 million.

By 2024, Tovala had achieved profitability, while maintaining steady annual growth along the way.

How Booth and Polsky Fueled Tovala’s Growth

Reflecting on the company’s journey, Rabie credited Booth and the Polsky Center as foundational to Tovala’s success.

“We wouldn’t be here without Booth — especially in those first three to five years,” he said. “Knowledge, talent, mentorship, and funding all came from this network.”

“Whenever we faced a challenge, someone in the Booth network was who we turned to,” he continued. “That combination of support and accountability made all the difference.”

Lessons for the Next Generation

Now leading a significant 9-figure revenue business, Rabie embodies the persistence and adaptability that defines an NVC winner. And his advice to current Booth students follows that same philosophy.

“Go all in,” he said. “At Booth, everyone knew I was serious about starting my company. That clarity attracted people who wanted to help.”

“The first two years were some of the most fun—figuring things out, building a team, selling a vision,” he continued. “If you love the process, you’ll stick with it long enough to make it work.”

The event was part of the NVC@30 Fireside Chat series, celebrating three decades of the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71 New Venture Challenge — one of the nation’s top-ranked accelerator programs. Upcoming events will feature additional NVC alumni founders, each reflecting on how Booth’s entrepreneurial ecosystem helped transform their ideas into industry-changing companies.